Theosophy Northwest View

The
Newsletter of the Northwest Branch of the Theosophical Society

August
2008 -- Vol. 11 Issue 6

Aztec Calendar Stone

The most precious relic of Pre-Columbian culture in
Mexico is the Aztec Calendar Stone.
This immense object of basaltic porphyry measures thirteen feet in diameter and
weighs twenty-four tons.It is a
living link with Mexico's fascinating past, a blend of Aztec science and
mythology.The stone was carved
shortly after the year 1502, and was unearthed about the middle part of the
seventeenth century at the Zocalo or Central Plaza of Mexico City.

To the amazement of archaeologists, the stone, when
deciphered, revealed a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy.Aztec astronomy, based chiefly on astrology, divided the solar year into
18 months of 20 days each with 5 intercalaries (days inserted into the calendar
to make it correspond to the solar year).The days were named by consecutive hieroglyphics, and they could by means
of the stone, calculate annual periods of 4, 13, 52, and 104 cycles.The Aztec priests used the stone calendar to regulate important festivals
and sacri-ficial seasons.With the
aid of the calendar, they could settle the hours of the day, the periods of
equinoxes and solstices, and the zenith transit of the sun with precision.

The face of the stone contains various mythological
and astrological figures and signs in geometrical order.The outer border contains two serpents which represent time and the chief
Aztec gods.Within this border are
the rays emanating from the central figure which represents "Tonatiuh," the Sun
god.Surrounding the central sun
figure are seven rings of varying dimensions.Above the face of the Sun god is an arrowhead symbolizing the wind.In the rectangles at the right and left of the sun's face are symbolic
representations of the four elements, air, fire, water, and earth.An interesting legend surrounds these four symbols.It is called the legend "del Quinto Sol," the legend of the Fifth Sun.

According to this legend, we are now living in the
era of the Fifth Sun, which is, incidentally, an era of decline.In this present era, creatures on the earth suffer continual hardship and
testing by the gods.Any species
which fails these tests is doomed to perish and to return to the sun from where
it came.The first era was
symbolized by an ocelot – a period of instinctive power, dwelling in animal form
and in darkness.The end of the
first era was marked when the ocelots devoured all the human inhabitants, and
the sun was destroyed.Then followed
the sun of Air, an era of pure spirit which might eventually be transformed into
flesh and blood.However, the people
of this era lacked the redeeming principle, which was a deified heart, and were
transformed into monkeys.

After this follow the eras of the sun of the Rain of
Fire, sun of Water, and the present Fifth Sun – Naollin (four movements).This sun too will die, unless mankind climbs the ladder of redemption
which is represented in the names of the twenty days of the Mayan calendar.The ultimate aim of creation is a regenerative process by which mankind
redeems itself.If this aim or goal
is not achieved, the world must be destroyed.

At the bottom of the calendar there are two serpents
brought face to face with each other.The two serpents represent on the left, the gods and Tonatiuh, and on the
right, Quetzalcoatl, the God of the Air.Archaologists place the birth of Quetzalcoatl as several centuries before
Christ.And like Christ,
Quetzalcoatl exemplified the deified man.He was a person of rare compassion and wisdom.Quetzalcoatl is represented in Aztec and Mayan mythology as the feathered
serpent, a union between flesh and the spirit.

The
Aztec calendar thus emerges as a remarkable instrument of science and religion,
an enduring tribute to Aztec culture and knowledge. – Louis R. Arana

Monthly Discussion
Group

"Ancient
Monuments and Mysteries"
is our next subject.We will be
discussing such questions as: How old is human culture?What do we know about Stonehenge, Easter Island, and the many pyramids,
temples, mounds, geoglyphs, and other structures found worldwide, and about the
aims and technology of their builders?
How are they connected with astronomy and other sciences, and with religion?Are they relevant to us today?
What are the ancient Mysteries, and how are they related to the perennial
wisdom? Are there places that are intrinsically sacred?Is human history cyclic, progressive, descending, or random?Why is it so popular to justify ideas and behavior with stories about
ancient humanity, whether hunters and gatherers or the Garden of Eden?How can we avoid projecting ourselves and our ideas onto the past? Come
and share your ideas!

When: Thursday, August 14, 7:30 to 8:45 pm

Where: Bellevue Library, 1111 - 110th Ave NE, Bellevue

Open to the public, unsectarian, non-political, no charge

Upcoming Topics

These subjects are currently being considered for the Monthly Discussion
group. As always, those who have a particular topic they would like to have
featured are encouraged to contact us.

September 4: The Path of the Mystic
October 9: Is the End of the World Coming?
November: Becoming Completely Human
December: Agreement among Religions

Theosophical Views

By Sally Dougherty

Stonehenge in Washington State?My husband and I were skeptical of the sign, but in a mile or two
there we were at the full-sized replica made of reinforced concrete – a war
memorial for those from Klickitat County who died in World War I.The builder, a pacifist, was told when visiting the original monument
in England that it had been used for human sacrifice. Feeling that “humanity
is still being sacrificed to the god of war,” he chose this form for the
memorial, built between 1918 and 1929.Scientists have since shown bloody Druidic rites to be fantasies, and
the red stain on the Neolithic “slaughter stone” to be simply oxidation.

The most popular theory today about the purpose of
Stonehenge is astronomical.
While its alignment with the solstice had long been obvious, the current
view gained wide acceptance after Gerald Hawkins published his computer
analysis in the 1960s that implied connections to many other astronomical
cycles. Still, despite centuries of study, this structure remains very much
a mystery.

In his new book,
Solving Stonehenge, archeologist Anthony Johnson subjects Stonehenge to
another computer analysis, this time from an architectural, engineering, and
surveying standpoint. His book combines historical survey with a detective
story of his researches.He
argues that, far from being an astronomical calculator built piecemeal from
empirical observations, Stonehenge was planned in its entirety as
architecture and then realized in stone.He stresses the structure’s geometrical sophistication, built using
surveys with pegs and chords to replicate on site the form, proportional
dimensions, and symmetry which had been planned with straight edge and a
compass or scribing device.Even
its occasional irregularities provided him with clues about how the
structure had been surveyed.

What about the circles of stones or holes of various
numbers? While some are compatible with astronomical cycles, Johnson
believes the geometry came first.Discussing a ring of holes that forms a 56-sided polygon, he notes
that in Neolithic Britain, “The association between any geometric figure and
a cycle of events in the natural world will not have gone unnoticed – it was
magical, if you like, that what they had drawn to a simple set of
‘discovered’ rules could equate with, for example, two lunar cycles of 28
days; right from the outset 28 or 56 will have become important.Here was some-thing they undoubtedly established by experiment long
before marking it on the ground, a link between their ‘mathematics’ and the
perceived harmony of the wider world.It was prehistoric science, with workable rules and repeatable
results” (p. 259).Johnson
quotes Greek philosopher Plutarch (45-120 AD) on the astronomical connection
of this 56-sided figure in Classical times with a god associated with “the
Earth’s shadow, into which [Pythagoreans] believe the moon slips when it
suffers eclipse” (Moralia, quoted p. 260).
Stonehenge also has a circle of 30 holes; and Plutarch associates solar
eclipses with the thirtieth of the month, which in a lunar calendar equates
with the new moon (new moons being about 29.5 days apart).Such figures and numbers would have had similar associations in many
times and places.

Johnson holds that we do not understand the purposes of
Neolithic monuments in Britain and elsewhere, and feels that perhaps we may
never do so completely.Speaking
of those who built Stonehenge 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, he says: “It has
taken a long time to eliminate the perception that prehistory is synonymous
with primitive culture, a notion long abandoned by archaeologists, but one
which remains a pervasive part of the popular perception of our distant
ancestors.The skill and
imagination of the Neolithic people who built Stonehenge would stand any
test of intellect we might apply today. . . . In using the evidence on the
ground to explore how the design of Stonehenge was laid out by the
prehistoric engineers, I have learnt something about what the communities
who build the monument knew, an intangible but vital part of the insight into the wider
dynamics of the monument’s construction . . . Perhaps eventually we will
have to conclude that its unique structure served an equally unique and
elusive function . . .” (p. 267)

Stonehenge is only one among many ancient mysteries. Scientists worldwide
continuously uncover artifacts, forma-tions, and human remains that provide
new insights, and occasionally overthrow widely held theories – even about
civilizations or structure we know a great deal about.We need to become ever more aware of our preconceptions, and approach
with patience and an open mind even the simplest findings, if we are to
successfully solve these riddles from humanity’s past.